Maduro holds spy chief over ‘coup’

Miguel Rodríguez Torres served as interior minister under President MaduroARIANA CUBILLOS/AP

The former head of Venezuela’s intelligence service has been arrested amid rumours that he was plotting a coup against President Maduro’s unpopular government with the support of disaffected army officers.

General Miguel Rodríguez Torres was leaving a hotel in Caracas when he was approached by armed officers from the feared Sebin intelligence police, which he once led, and bundled into a car. He is being held at the headquarters of the General Directorate of Military Counterintelligence, a bleak building known as the Tomb.

A statement released by the government after his arrest on Tuesday said that he had been plotting “armed acts and a conspiracy against the constitution”, and suggested that he was working for US intelligence. No evidence was offered to back the claim.